Question

drinking formula too fast

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My 1month old son drinks his formula fast and he sometimes gags on it and have a hard time swallowing it or breathing and spits it out. Then, he gets very fussy and still hungry but does it again when I feed him. Can anyone explain why this happens and should I worry about it?

Mom Answers

Your baby might be very hungry when you feed him. Maybe you can try feeding him just before that time. Also, I am not sure what bottles you are using, but you can try switiching to a nipple with a smaller opening. I use Dr. Browns, they have numbers to indicate how big the nipple opening is. The other think you can do is try not to hold the bottle too vertically in the beginning. That should slow the flow a bit. Just make sure to keep tilting enough so that your baby doesn't get air thru the nipple as he drinks his feed.

When my boy (now 14 weeks) was 3 weeks old, he pretty much ate every 2-3 hours. He has now worked up to every 4 hours but when he was so tiny, my experience was that he needed to eat much more frequently. I went through a lot of trying to stretch out his feedings, insisting on having a schedule and more of a life and after struggling with all this, i think the best thing really is to feed him/her when he/she is hungry.

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